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4 14 16 20 INSIDE ISSUE 6 · WINTER 2009/10 These symbols can save your life A quick guide to the most commonly used danger pictograms DANGEROUS CONTENT INSIDE A MEMBERSHIP WITH ADVANTAGES BUILD TO LAST 6 IS OUR LUCKY NUMBER WE’RE READY TO SERVE 10 READ PAGE

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DT Magazine is Wolseley's Nordic employee magazine, published three times a year, and read by staff in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. The magazine serves multiple purposes but the most important objective is to contribute to a strong sales culture. If you want to know more about the magazine, feel free to contact Patrick May at 0045 3115 4477

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4141620

INSIDE

ISSUE 6 · WINTER 2009/10

These symbols can save your lifeA quick guide to the most commonly used danger pictograms

DANGEROUS CONTENTINSIDE

A MEMBERSHIP WITH ADVANTAGESBUILD TO LAST6 IS OUR LUCKY NUMBERWE’RE READY TO SERVE

10READ PAGE

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THIS SUMMER we all got a new boss. Ian Meakins was appointed the new CEO for Wolseley. I couldn’t help thinking what this would mean for me. The news caught me of guard. I started wondering what it is about new bosses that makes peo-ple feel alert, maybe even un-comfortable? Then it struck me. Your new boss has the key to your success firmly in his/her hands. A lot is said and written about how a new boss survives the first hun-dred days. Not a lot of atten-tion is being paid to how you survive your boss. I found a few pointers I would like to share with you.

To start with, figure out how you’ll be evaluated. What is important to your boss? Figure that out as soon as possible so you can start helping her/him to achieve his/her goals. While doing so, be dependable. Or in oth-er words, do what you say you’re going to do. Finally, my favorite: come prepared. If there’s a problem, don’t just point it out but come with suggestion how to solve the problem. Be prepared also at meetings and be firm in what you know you know. And if that doesn’t help, you might find some comfort in good old Churchils’ words: “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”

Charlotte Gullach, [email protected]

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DT Group +45 39559700Wolseley +44 118 929 8700Starkki +358 3 850 900STARK +45 89343434Beijer +46 752411000Neumann +47 55549800Silvan +45 87308730Cheapy +46 431443540Woodcote +420 226539100

USEFUL NUMBERS:

Welcome

ENGLISH

8 HardTalk

10 Pictograms that can save your life A quick guide to the most commonly used danger pictograms

14 Build to last Beijer makes huge deliveries

16 6 is our lucky number The story of our fitness ratio

24 DT Quiz Winn a candy machine!

4A membership with advantages

20Dear

customer, we’re ready

to serveImproving skills and

competencies

Being part of a family has it’s advantages

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This is not some-thing that you nec-essarily learn from

textbooks or courses. How-ever, we instinctively know when we experience it. DT Magazine is looking for these service gems – where you or a colleague – or a group of colleagues – have made an extra effort and helped a customer to solve his or her problem. We’d like to hear from you and we’d also like to interview your customer and get his/her side of the story.

Wolseley recently (July) appointed Ian Meakins the new CEO.

Meakins took over from Chip Hornsby who’s been CEO since August 2006. Ian Meakins, 52, comes from Travelex Holdings Ltd, the international foreign ex-change and payments business, where he was Chief Executive. Meakins: “Wolseley is a compa-ny with a proud history and an exciting long term future and I am delighted to be appointed Chief Executive. I look forward to getting to know the business and working with employees to help manage through the cur-rent tough conditions, while fur-ther clarifying the strategy and

execution to ensure we deliver value to our shareholders.”

Read also Hard Talk (page 8 & 9) for Steen Weirsøe’s com-ment on the appointment.

B2B LOGISTICS SHOP

NEWS

Wolseley appointed new CEO

Me and my projectThe idea is to get insight in what ex-traordinary service is and what it takes. We don’t expect you to write a novel – the journalists from DT Magazine will do this for you – but if you could drop us two lines in a mail with your name and phone number, we will call you! Send your mail to info@ DTmagazine.dk.

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A GOOD PLACE TO WORK

For example, when 4A and CC Vejle closed their doors, STARK of-

fered employees jobs. Beijer took over 3 Silvan shops and their em-ployees in Sweden when they closed down. And even though

the individual divisions because of their market approach differ from one another, there’s com-mon ground to be found. There’s more. You can use your member-ship pro actively. For example if you want to advance your career.

A membership with advantagesDT Group for most of us is not a lot more than a name. It’s not something we reflect upon on a daily basis at least. We’re employed at Cheapy, STARK or one of the other divisions in DT Group. That division is your first reference and a part of your professional identity. But being a member of DT Group has certain advantages nevertheless.

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B2B LOGISTICS SHOP

Or if you would like to work abroad for some years.

Swapping uniforms is the easy partÅsa Holgersson started up the Silvan store in Malmø in 2005. At the beginning of this year the shop closed. To open again in August but now as a Bei-jer store. And once more Åsa helped getting the shop ready for the grand opening on August the 20th. This time the Silvan blue was replaced by Beijer yel-low. “I got used to the new uni-form quite fast” she laughs. “I wish I could say the same about the work. We do things differ-ent in Beijer compared to Silvan. At Silvan we focused upon pri-vate do it yourself customers who enter in the shop, pick their goods, pay and leave again. At Beijer we focus on profession-al customers. I had to get ac-

customed to taking orders over the phone without getting pay-ment first”, Åsa says. Beijer has chosen to keep the focus on diy customers in Malmø, but add-ed the professional customer segment. The shop got a drive in, which is also new for the ten Silvan employees that made the transition to Beijer. “I think it was hard for most people to have to take down the Silvan store”, Åsa says. “At the same time, it was a big relief that we still had a job. We’ve been in a limbo for a few months where we didn’t know whether we would have a job. For every day that goes we’re getting bet-ter. We’re developing new rou-tines and we’re slowly but sure-ly adapting to the Beijer way of doing things. It’s hard work but I am happy to be here.”

Learning the Beijer wayChristina Svensson started in Beijer two years ago. It has been her ambition to become a lead-er and to back up her ambition she signed up for Beijers’ lead-ership academy. She graduated in March this year and already in June she was offered to lead the new Beijer shop in Malmø. “I knew that I was taking over Sil-van people who were quite hap-py to work for Silvan. My experi-ence from the shopfloor helped. I have been working all func-tions and know the work, how it’s done and what it takes. I can relate to what they’re doing and what they are thinking. Except for that, I try to do an effort to get to know people and relate to them where they are.” Chris-tina has no doubt that there are cultural differences between Beijer and Silvan.

Åsa Holgersson and Christina Svensson Beijer, Malmø

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“I am under the impression that Silvan works more instructive – things are documented and described. In Beijer we do not have that many guidelines. That must have been frustrating for the Silvan people in the begin-ning. They went to a Beijer store near by, all of them, to get famil-iar with what it means to work in a Beijer store. After all, un-like Silvan we cater profession-al builders and that requires a different approach. What really impressed me is the work they have done with building up the shop. They have been working hard to make things work here. Could I imagine working in an-other division? Not for the mo-ment. I have a yellow heart. But never say never.”

Supporting job shopping “At Silvan we support people that want to make the shift to other divisions”, says Morten El-bro responsible for HR at Silvan. “It doesn’t happen enough if you ask me. This is due to the fact

that the divisions in DT Group operate independently. It’s natu-ral for people to want to change scenery or responsibilities when they have been in a function for some time. It’s a good opportu-nity for employees do get ex-periences from different divi-sions and have the possibility to develop a career across divi-sions. It’s good also for Silvan (or any of the other divisions) because it makes us a more at-tractive employer if we can offer opportunities that are beyond our own division.” According to Morten this is not a privilege that should be reserved to high-er rankings. “If you’re a shop as-sistant and have a dream to work abroad, we can facilitate that opportunity. Why not? We recently for example send a Sil-van employee who got a girl-friend in the UK to Wolseley.” If you have the ambition, talk to your HR department about it. They can help you identifying your opportunities and estab-lish the contact with the other

A GOOD PLACE TO WORK

Jens Nielsen Former CC Vejle, now STARK

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divisions. Morten: “It’s a win-win situation as I see it. Employees get a fantastic experience and we as a company get to share best practice from other divi-sions in an effective and con-structive way.”

Challenging decision-makingCC Vejle has a proud history. The company has existed for 167 years and closing it down was a heart bleeding experi-

“Things are collegial. We know each other and I feel there’s a large portion of mutual respect. Administrative aspects that needed taking care of were han-dled fast and efficient and we share the same professional at-titude towards the market.”

Coming home“In June I learned that I was go-ing to get a job in STARK”, says Bjarne Davidsen, former CC Ve-

B2B LOGISTICS SHOP

Swapping uniforms is the easy part. Getting used to a different way of working is another story!

ence for its employees. “We made a huge turn around from being a product focused to be-ing a customer focused com-pany. We seriously felt that our hard work was starting to pay of”, says Jens Nielsen, former managing director at CC Vejle. “But the figures unfortunately showed a different reality. We had to dismantle the shop and transfer the best of our insights, concepts, and 26 of the remain-ing 38 employees to STARK.” Which was a challenging expe-rience for Jens. “When we got an idea at CC Vejle, the time to market was extremely short. A lot of things we did by trail and error. When you want to change something in STARK it affects 88 branches and before the de-cision is made, a lot of people have been involved. On the oth-er hand side, once the decision is made, things are being tak-en up professionally and noth-ing is being left to coincidence.” Jens feels welcome at STARK.

jle employee. “A message that I greeted with mixed emotions since my heart belonged to CC Vejle. At the same time it ap-pealed to my pride. STARK is a strong brand. The company has been able to make a sig-nificant difference in the indus-try.” Bjarne made the switch to STARK where he became prod-uct manager responsible for wooden floors and tabletops. “CC Vejle was a wholesaler and my job was to buy cheap and sell expensive. On paper I now have the same function but the nature of the job is different. At STARK the focus is on pur-chasing. I buy products for 88 branches. The decisions I make have far reaching consequences so I better make sure we at all times have the right products.”

The product manager expe-rienced a warm welcome from colleagues in Århus. The biggest difference, as he sees it, is the magnitude of the business and

CONTINUED ON PAGE 23

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We question the quality of our own brand: BASIC for paint. Would you use this paint in your house?

I think it depends on the object you want to paint, the result you are aiming for and what you are willing to pay. These three things are related. Depending on the ambition level people make a choice. But whatever the choice is, we always have a product that matches their requirements and I think that this is what is im-portant to remember. If you go to an electronics store to buy a flat screen and you choose a flat screen that costs DKK 3500, you will not expect the same quality compared to a screen that costs three times the price. Custom-ers understand this. Yet there’s a market for cheap flat screens. Just like there’s a market for BA-SIC paint.

We’ve been going through some serious downsizing lately and it starts hurting customer service. In spite of a lower revenue, we still get more or less the same amount of visitors in our shop but we don’t feel we have the time to service them properly. What should we do?

It is of course not acceptable

that customers can’t get pro-fessional help no matter what. It is your branch(e) managers’ re-sponsibility to prioritize tasks. When sales are slugging staff-ing has to be adjusted to bal-ance cost and income. Look-ing at the overall results in DT Group, we cannot ignore the fact that the amount of custom-ers has decreased in the first six months of 2009. We also ex-perience that the share of bas-ket per customer has decreased. The logic we apply is that if there are fewer customers and you sell fewer products, you need less staff to service customers and/or fill up supplies. Branche man-agers balance staff and priori-tize at all time tasks directly in-fluencing customer experience. You on the other hand, have to accept that you have additional tasks like filling up supplies when there aren’t a lot of people in the shop. Having said this, I want to emphasize that I don’t like lay-ing of people. It is tough to see colleagues leave because of the consequences of the crisis.

Why can CC Vejle not con-tinue as an independent branche?

We had to react upon the sad but bold fact that, in spite of the hard work of competent staff and management in CC Vejle,

HardTalkwith Steen Weirsøe

HARDTALK

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the sales volume was not large enough to run a profitable opera-tion. Whole-salers like CC Vejle have the hardest of times. Quite some of them as a matter of fact have had to close their doors. To save CC Vejle we had to think creatively. An integration into STARK, I think, is the perfect solu-tion. STARK will benefit from the knowledge, the insights and the customer base build up in CC Ve-jle whereas the experience and goodwill from staff in CC Vejle will not be lost for DT Group.

What are the con-sequences for DT Group now that Ian Meakins takes over the steer-ing wheel from Chip Hornsby as CEO for Wolseley?

Ian Meakins has started a strategic proc-ess that involves many senior manag-ers around the Wolseley Group. The intention is to de-velop a plan we can start execut-ing upon early 2010. I have rea-sons to believe that DT Group will play an important role in this plan - especially if we continue to de-liver strong results, even in hard times.

In an enterprise with more than 7,700 employees, the distance to the top management may seem long. With HardTalk, it becomes shorter, because here we put you in contact with DT Group’s most senior manager. Steen Weirsøe answers your and your colleagues questions, however searching they are.

What would you like to ask Steen? Send your question to [email protected] Don’t mince your words as you may remain totally anonymous.

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Recent studies show that roughly one third of all consumers

have no clue what the various pictograms on cans, bottles and other packaging means. This ignorance causes serious

health and environmental haz-ards. Some chemicals can be-come a danger if they are not handled properly. They can be for example explosive, toxic, ir-ritant, flammable or hazardous to the environment. The intro-

An increasing amount of products entering our branches comes with pictograms of some kind. We’re well acquainted to products containing chemical ingredients carrying warning or even danger signs. Yet too few people know what they mean, rules on labeling have been changed and on top of that there’s an increasing amount of products carrying environmental labels. In other words, it’s a jungle out there.

THE STORY OF ...

PICTOGRAMSthat can save your life

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B2B LOGISTICS SHOP

ange we know so well. This will be replaced by a more stylish expression with a red border and a white background.

The new labeling entered into force on 20 January 2009. But to give suppliers the time to adapt to this new system, the ‘old’ labels and pictograms can be used over a transitional period. All newly produced sub-stances (such as acetone) must carry the new symbols from De-cember 1st, 2010. Substances already on the shelves on that date can continue to be sup-plied until December 1st, 2012. For mixtures (such as paint) these dates are June 1st 2015 and June 1st 2017.

duction of a growing amount of environmental claims does not make the confusion any smaller.

There is nothing worse, when talking to a customer, than be-ing asked a question you can’t answer. Now you can.

Make overThe required symbols and warning phrases on chemical goods’ packaging and labels to inform users about the hazards are based on 40 year-old di-rectives. Experts have recently come up with a new look (see pages 12 and 13) for the most common symbols, which means a farewell to the striking or-

PICTOGRAMSThe flower (EU) and the swan labels (Denmark) symbolize more or less the same. Both labels focus on the product life cycle, requiring produc-ers to comply with directions on resource consumption during the pro-duction, packaging and waste management.

Bra Miljöval (Sweden), just like the flower and the swan, focuses on the use of resources during the production and the disposal of the product after usage.

The blue angel (Germany): the requirements are based on a life-cycle assessment. An eco-jury set up by the German environmental authori-ties decides what products can be labeled.

FSC stands for Forest Stewardship Council (Global): International la-beling system for wood and paper. In an FSC forest we do not harvest more timber than the forest can reproduce. The label is also a guar-antee that animals and plants are protected and that the people who work in the woods, are guaranteed training, safety equipment and proper wages.

PEFC (Global) is the abbreviation for Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification systems. The label is found on products of wood and/or paper. The mark guarantees that the wood comes from sustain-able forestry, taking both the environment, biodiversity and forest us-ers’ socioeconomic conditions into account.

Indeklima mærket. This is a voluntary Danish labeling system for con-struction products, which has a set of demands focusing on the prod-ucts effect on the indoor environment.

Energy Star label is an international energy label and it guarantees the user that products with this label use less energy and when not used automatically go into dwelling mode or shut of altogether.

Energy Label AG is the EU’s mandatory energy labeling system, which applies to household appliances and light bulbs. The label indicates on a scale from A to G, how energy-efficient products are. A-rated applianc-es have the lowest energy consumption within each group.

Elsparemærket is a Danish label that assesses a products’ total energy consumption. Products that have the Elsparemærket label are consid-ered to be the best buy in their category in relation to energy savings.

Commonly used green symbols

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Eco symbolsBefore we start explaining the nature of environmental labe-ling, we’d like to make a cardi-nal point: there is no chemical that has a positive effect on the environment. There are howev-er chemicals that by nature are more harmful than others. The same goes for production meth-ods, packaging, transportation and disposal after usage. This is what we are addressing with environmental labeling. It should give our customers a guideline as to what products are more

THE STORY OF ...

THE MAIN PROBLEM is that different countries have differ-ent rules on labeling. For exam-ple, a chemical could be classi-fied as ‘toxic’ or ‘explosive’ in

one country but not in anoth-er. Different symbols are also used to indicate the same haz-ards. Quite confusing. Member countries of the UN agreed on

Why change?

harmful than others. There’s an important flaw

in the current system that you should consider when advising customers. There’s no unified global system and currently all available systems are based on voluntarily usage. This means that products that are classi-fied and labeled with eco sym-bols live up to certain environ-mental directions. But it doesn’t mean that products that do not carry the symbol, per definition do NOT live up to these direc-tions.

This symbol tells you that the product has passed WEEE (Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equip-ment) compliance, focusing on the treatment, re-covery and recycling of electric and electronic equip-ment. All applicable products in the EU must pass WEEE compliance.

RoHS stands for Restriction of Hazardous Substanc-es and you can find the symbol on electronics. The symbol tells you that the product does not contain lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, poly-brominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers, all hazardous materials typically found in elec-trical and electronic products. All products produced in the EU after July 2006 must pass compliance.

The CE label means that the item/s comply with the minimum standards for health and safety in the Eu-ropean directive on personal protection equipment and have been tested in accordance with the eu-ropean standard. This is not a quality certificate, it only shows that the product meets minimum require-ments in the EU.

Commonly used symbols

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B2B LOGISTICS SHOP

a labeling system that can be used worldwide, the Globally Harmonised System of Classi-fication and Labeling of Chemi-cals, known as the GHS. The GHS provides ONE single sys-tem to identify hazards. Coun-tries of the European Union

have developed what is called the CLP Regulation, Classifica-tion, Labeling and Packaging of substances and mixtures. The legislation introduces through-out the EU a new system for classifying and labeling chemi-cals, based on the GHS.

This symbol you find on chemicals that may present an immediate or delayed danger to one or more components of the environment.

This symbol you find on chemicals if they are corrosive for metal and/or skin. The symbol signalizes health hazards.

Acute toxicity – classifies both chemicals that are an acute hazard to your health and chemi-cals that can cause allergies. Chemicals that can cause long-term injuries carry a different symbol, but it’s not permitted to sell these to consumers.

Oxidizing - Oxidizing materials can speed up the development of a fire and make it more in-tense, cause substances that do not normally burn readily in air to burn rapidly, cause combus-tible materials to burn spontaneously without the presence of obvious ignition sources such as a spark or flame. Oxidizing materials may be toxic or corrosive and can cause serious health injuries.

Highly/extremely flammable - classifies chemi-cals that may catch fire in contact with air, only need brief contact with an ignition source, have a very low flash point or evolve highly flamma-ble gases in contact with water and chemicals that have an extremely low flash point and boiling point, and gases that catch fire in contact with air.

Chemicals carrying this symbol can cause chronic health damage such as Cancer, DNA damage and impaired fertility.

This symbol warns you for compressed gases. You will typically find this symbol on for example gas bottles for your outdoor kitchen.

Commonly used chemical symbolsOld symbol New symbol Description

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ME AND MY PROJECT

This is how Leif’s weeks are going to look like for a long

time to come. Until 2011 to be precise. Construction develop-er Ångström and Mellgren are renovating 657 apartments and they choose Beijer to be their preferred supplier. Meaning that Leif gets to furnish all apart-

ments! A solid two digit million order.

“When I got the order, it felt like I grew an additional two me-ters”, says Leif Sundin proudly. “The best thing of it all is that this order comes in a time of crisis. It couldn’t come at a bet-ter time.”

“I took a calculated risk to

BUILD to lastIt’s Monday afternoon. In Västerås Leif Sundin prepares for an important delivery. Tomorrow morning Beijer is to deliver kitchens for eight apartments. It is crucial that the delivery is spot on. Meaning in time AND complete. Today Beijer trucks delivered bathrooms and on Friday, the lorries will be filled with material for bedrooms, toilets and halls for the eight apartments.

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B2B LOGISTICS SHOP

get the order. We were asked to deliver samples for eight apart-ments for a complex owned by Mimer. In itself a good business opportunity. But I had a hint that it might not stop with eight apartments. Therefore I pulled our suppliers together and con-vinced them to come up with solutions, material and prices as if we were going to deliver to the entire complex.”

The product samples and al-ternatives that Beijer presented, was to Mimers’ liking. Price was indeed a parameter in their de-cision but it turned out not to be the decisive one. The landowner ended up choosing for material of a durable quality. “We build to last”, says Thomas Rehn, project manager at Mimer. “The idea is that we do not have to do any major renovations in these apartments for the next 30 – 40 years. Beijer also has done an effort to identify our ten-

ants’ wishes. They understand the success parameters for this project.”

On time deliveryThe fact that Leif Sundin has 25 years of experience with projects of this size and that he has worked with the develop-ers before, of course helps too. “Leif as no other understands how important logistics in a project like this is”, says Mag-nus Andersson, from Ångström and Mellgren. He is one out of two project leaders and he car-ries the responsibility for the budget. “We have a small army of carpenters, painters, electri-cians and what have you run-ning around on the site all of the time. It is absolutely crucial that the supplies we order arrive at the agreed time. If not, we have people running around that we pay to do nothing.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 19

Leif Sundin from Beijer and Magnus Andersson from Ångström and Mellgren discuss the schedule for next weeks delivery.

Leif Sundin Beijer

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“Today the main pa-rameter we focus up-on is price: what do

we pay our suppliers and what

does the customer pay us? That limits our ability to understand the effectiveness of our product portfolio”, says KaiOve. “We are

THE STORY OF – OUR FITNESS RATIO

Making sure we at all times have the right products in the needed volume at the right price is not as easy as it sounds. The puzzle at STARK has an additional complication since the branches are not necessarily identical. Different branches buy different products from a large but defined portfolio of varying suppliers who cover all available product groups. If it’s up to Kai Ove Hoffmann, productgroup manager at STARK, the current practice is up for revision.

6 is our lucky number

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running tests where we included inventory turnover (how often are you able to sell a specific product) as a key parameter to define product fitness.”

Earning per product

Inventory turnover

Product fitness

Fitness ratio! If you want to know how fit a product is you multiply your earnings per product with your inventory turnover. For example, if your earning is 25 and your in-ventory turnover is 4, your prod-uct has a fitness rate of 100. “Adding inventory turnover in our rating will improve the way we evaluate products” says Kai-Ove. “Let’s say we are able to decrease the cost price with 1, and we at the same time can increase the sales price with 1. This means that we now have a product earning of 27. With an inventory turnover of 4, the fit-ness rate is 27 X 4 = 108. Now

imagine you are able to increase the inventory turnover instead. Let’s say you’re able to improve it with 2 so you come up to 6. Year earning is still 25 but mul-tiplied with 6, your fitness rate now is a mind blowing 150!”

The inventory turnover of average products should be around 6. - “6 is our lucky number. It means that our prod-ucts are on stock no longer than 2 months.”

The product fitness ratio has but a few hurdles to over-come as well. It’s not the easi-est project to start up consid-ering the timing. But KaiOve is in good faith. “This is a brilliant way of looking into our product portfolio. Everybody can under-stand why we do it and how it works. Our IT- systems are set up to manage the necessary da-ta while product managers get a powerful tool to evaluate their supplier portfolio”, says KaiOve Hoffmann.

B2B LOGISTICS SHOP

“Sikaflex is a qual-ity product”, says Kim Christensen. “It

has decisive qualities competi-

tors don’t have but it is only a fraction more expensive.” The challenge is in the packaging. When the choice is between a

Sticky arguments

A product group that lives up to the ambitious fitness ratio of 6 in full (6.3) are Sikaflex adhesives and sealants. Sika features a large range of so called processing materials used in sealing, bonding, damping, reinforcing and protecting load-bearing structures in both construc-tion and industry. Sika is sold in STARK, Neumann, Beijer, Starkii and Woodcote. Sikaflex. Sika sales consultant Kim Christensen is enthu-siastic about the fitness ratio. And for good reasons: once this flies, Sika’s turnover generated by DT group will fly too.

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B2B LOGISTICS SHOPTHE STORY OF – OUR FITNESS RATIO

Volkswagen or a Skoda, you can see the difference and you un-derstand why a Volkswagen is more expensive. This distinction you don’t have when selling ad-hesives and sealants. “The dif-ferences you first notice once you start working with the prod-uct”, Kim says.

There are three decisive dif-ferences. For starters, Sikaflex is more than two times more flexible than traditional sili-cones. That’s a significant qual-ity when sealing doors and windows on the outside. The temperature differences doors and windows experience, are served by the extra flexibility. A less technical advantage is the

fact that you can paint on top of Sikaflex. Try that on a silicone sealer and see what happens! You need a paint though that is flexible too! Last but not least, it is easier to work with. The prod-uct is smoother and your cus-tomer will save important time on the job.

“To increase sales, it is im-portant that products are pre-

sented attractively. Products with a high margin, should

be on eye level. Products you don’t sell a lot of, you should display only

few of. What also works is to stray products around

in the shop on relevant spots. It is our experience that handymen easily forget

to buy all needed material for a specific project.”

Sika people are happy to visit our stores and help us getting the most out of the Sika range. “Some of our products are quite technical and therefore com-plicated to sell. Sika special-ists are happy to invest time to introduce you properly to Sika products. We’d love to support sales through the DT group di-visions in any way we can. I am sure that 6.3 is not the ceiling for the fitness ratio for Sikaflex products.”

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B2B LOGISTICS SHOPME AND MY PROJECT

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15 When any given material is out of stock, we expect Leif to be creative and to come up with an acceptable alternative. We have to avoid a building stop at any price.”

The project runs like a clock-work. Every week the construc-tors start up the renovation of eight new apartments. From start to finish takes five weeks. “So far, approximately eighty apartments have been finished”, says Leif. “The first tenants have already moved in. I talked to one of the returned tenants who got a raise in the rent for SEK 800. But she didn’t mind at all as she was so happy with her new home.”

“So far we have not had any major hick ups”, says Magnus Andersson. “And we’re get-ting better while the project is evolving as well. The schedule is tight but I feel that Beijer is tak-ing their part of the responsible to help us keeping our sched-ule. That in the end will help us keeping our promise to Mimer, who is our customer.”

Fix to lastMimer is the largest property owner in this area with more

than 10.000 apartments and Leif hopes that Beijer can keep on impressing them. “It would be great if this project would be the start of a long term collabo-ration with both Ångström and Mellgren and Mimer. The les-son I learned from this project is that it is important to listen and learn. To understand what is important to your customers,

Magnus Andersson Ångström and Mellgren and Mimer

Listen to what your customer thinks is important, what they worry about and anticipate

what worries they have, and an-ticipate.”

“Eighty percent of my work in this project is trouble shooting. If there’s a problem, I make sure to fix it. I also make sure that the same problem doesn’t hap-pen again. At the end of the day, when everybody is pleased with the results, I am happy!”

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TRAINING RUB-OFF

Raita Ahonen (33), Starkki“I’m working with sales

in our branch in LieLahti (170 km northwest from Helsinki, a suburb

to Tampera) and have done so for the past nine years. Even though I have attended numerous sales courses over the past years, I am still learning every time.”

Dear customer, we’re ready to serveWhile the crisis is keeping customers from coming to our stores, we use this period where activity is low to improve skills and competencies, especially sales skills.

Niklas Olsson Cheapy

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B2B LOGISTICS SHOP

“My last sales course was in February. During the course we talked about how you would want to be treated yourself if you were a customer. That was a real mind opener for me. I all of the sudden could see myself in numerous situations where I fell disrespected and not lis-tened to. Like when going to your garage and your mechan-ic talks technically about what is wrong with your car. A lot of our customers must feel the ex-act same way when they come to Starkki. We have a tendency to talk about product specif-ics. I never really thought about it this way but it sure changed my perspective. It made me re-flect upon the way I serve cus-tomers.”

“Today I am practicing to ask customers the relevant ques-tions so I can help them getting the right products for the job. If it turns out that it is a renova-tion project they are initiating, I can make sure that they leave the shop with all the tools and materials they need. Customers seem to like it and perceive this to be a good service. It saves them a trip coming back or worse, going to the competitor.”

“I learned how to sell a horse”Niklas Olsson (34), Cheapy “Before I started working for Cheapy four years ago, I was self employed”, says Niklas Ols-son, teamleader at Cheapy in Kristianstad. “So I am used to face customers. Still I got an awful lot out of the sales train-ing I have attended. I became a lot better at asking the right

questions to customers and that makes a difference every time you face a customer. They buy more”.

“In the old days, that is, be-fore the training, when a cus-tomer asked me for a bucket of paint, I handed it over the coun-ter and left it there. Now I ask investigating questions about what it is that they are go-ing to paint. If it is a house that needs painting on the outside, I will ask whether it is a new or an old house. Whether they al-so will paint the window frames. Are they going to need sandpa-per, pencils or anything else that you typically use when paint-ing. That is what the course did for me.”

“We were three participants from the branch in Kristianstad and met with other Cheapy staff for two days. We got an assign-ment to sell a horse to a fictive customer, played by one of the trainers. The exercise of course was to teach us to come up with all the relevant questions that could help us identifying what kind of horse we should sell the customer.”

“It was my first sales train-ing ever but it won’t be my last. Everything we do in Cheapy is about sales and whatever train-ing I can get to become better, I will applaud.”

“Think SALES, not assistant”Kenneth (39), Silvan“It’s been15 years since I started in Silvan in Nykøbing F. I like the variety of people coming here. It makes my job exciting and unpredictable.”

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B2B LOGISTICS SHOPTRAINING RUB-OFF

“My last sales training I had together with 22 Silvan col-leagues from various branches. It has been great sharing ex-periences with colleagues you normally don’t meet. It is also interesting to witness how the nature and focus of training has changed over the years. At this specific course for exam-ple, we used role play. We had to play the role of customer and seller. I have never tried it before and even though it fell awkward at start, it turned out to be a lot of fun.”

“It was excellent practice and we learned a lot about cross sell-

ing. To me this is not about sell-ing as much as possible to the customer but to be relevant. So the customer leaves with all the stuff he or she needs to complete whatever project they initiated. A good sale for me is a customer who purchases for 17.000 DKK, pays with a smile while thank-ing me for helping out. I think it is great we focus on sales.”

“We should also discuss it in the branches some more between colleagues – not only focus on the things that went wrong but also on the sales that were just perfect. We could learn a lot from each other.”

Kenneth Silvan

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 the consequences this has for the culture. “At CC Vejle eve-rything was open. The culture is STARK is somewhat more closed, something I will have to get used to. For me, due to my experience with negotiating and the product categories I am re-sponsible for today, the shift to STARK feels like coming home”.

We don’t initiateAt head office in Søborg we meet with Kenneth Wegner, re-sponsible for HR in DT Group. We

learn that there’s a pragmatic approach to the issue of shift-ing jobs between divisions. “The nature of our business is local”, Kenneth says. “We depend on lo-cal knowledge, local networks and local experience. As a result, we do not dictate on a detailed level how the business should be

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B2B LOGISTICS SHOPA GOOD PLACE TO WORK

Starting at STARK feels like coming home

run. This is also reflected in our HR approach. We prioritize the sharing of insights, market in-telligence and experiences. We support divisions with the devel-opment of career planning and staff development initiatives. As such, we enable possibilities. Al-so when it comes to shifting be-tween divisions. But we do not actively take a stake nor encour-age divisional migration. We sim-ply do not consider that being a part of our role. Having said that, I am convinced that it is not that difficult to make the shift. After all, we do have a mutual strategy. We have shared values in rela-tion to customer service, profes-sionalism and measuring results. We are a family.”

Bjarne Davidsen Former CC Vejle, now STARK

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B2B LOGISTICS SHOP

QUIZ

QUIZQUIZ

1 Who’s the new CEO in Wolseley?

A Chip HornsbyB Steen WeirsøeC Ian Meakins

2 What does inven-tory turnover refer to?

A The value of our inventory at any given time

B How many times our inven-tory is sold and replaced over a period

C The investment made in the inventory over a period

3 What will Niklas Olsson from Cheapy sell you?

A His mother in lawB Burning waterC A horse

4 GHS stands for?

A Globally Harmo-nised System

B Global Hazard Signs

C General Hazard Symbols

5 What are the three decisive arguments to buy SikaFlex?

A Cheaper, you can paint over it, easier to work with

B Flexible, cheaper, you can paint over it

C Flexible, you can paint over it, cheaper

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Winner of the last quiz:

Jørgen Nielsen, HT Bendix · Torsten Johansson, Beijer ByggVesa Lothari Starkki · Jack R Johansen, STARK

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Mads Poulsen, STARK

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